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Here are some music events that have happened today, August 3.
*August 3, 1985 – Madonna scored her first UK No.1 single with ‘Into The Groove’. The track was taken from the movie ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ which featured Madonna and Rosanna Arquette. ‘Into The Groove’ is Madonnas best selling single in the UK, having sold over 850,000 copies.
*August 3, 2007 – Queen guitarist Brian May handed in his astronomy PhD thesis – 36 years after abandoning it to join the band. May had recently carried out observational work in Tenerife, where he studied the formation of “zodiacal dust clouds”.
July 26, 1969 – Johnny Cash released the single, ‘A Boy Named Sue’, a song written by Shel Silverstein. Cash was at the height of his popularity when he recorded the song live at California’s San Quentin State Prison at a concert on February 24, 1969. The song tells the tale of a young man’s quest for revenge on a father who abandoned him at 3 years of age and whose only contribution to his entire life was naming him Sue.
July 26, 1986 – Peter Gabriel went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Sledgehammer’, a No.4 hit in the UK. The song’s music video has won a number of awards, including a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards. Gabriel was also nominated for three Grammy Awards. As of 2011, ‘Sledgehammer’ is the most played music video in the history of.
July 26, 2017 – A jury awarded Quincy Jones $9.4 million in royalties for the use of songs he produced in two Cirque du Soleil shows and the ‘This Is It’ documentary. Jones filed suit in 2013, asking for $30 million.
*July 16, 1995 – Rap singer Queen Latifah was the victim of a car-jacking attempt that went wrong, leaving her bodyguard shot and wounded.
*July 16, 2000 – Coldplay went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their debut release Parachutes. The release spawned the hit singles ‘Shiver’, ‘Yellow’, ‘Trouble’, and ‘Don’t Panic’ and won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2002.
*July 16, 2015 – A sports car belonging to hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash which contained valuable vintage records was mistakenly given away by a parking attendant. The incident happened in a Manhattan garage where the musician returned to pick up the vehicle after nearly two hours, the attendant said he had given it to someone else thinking he was the owner.
July 2, 1969 – Frank Sinatra went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Strangers In The Night’. The song was taken from the film ‘A Man Could Get Killed’.
*1970 – The newly formed Queen featuring Freddie Mercury (possibly still known as Freddie Bulsara) on vocals, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and Mike Grose on bass played their first gig at Truro City Hall, Cornwall, England. They were billed as Smile, Brian and Roger’s previous band, for whom the booking had been made originally. Original material at this time included an early version of ‘Stone Cold Crazy’.
*1981 – Motorhead scored their only UK No.1 album with ‘No Sleep Til Hammersmith’. The live album was recorded at Leeds and Newcastle shows during their Short, Sharp Pain In The Neck tour in 1981. The name of the tour was a reference to the injury sustained by Phil Taylor when he was dropped on his head during some after-show horseplay. Despite the title of the album, the London venue the Hammersmith Odeon was not played on the tour.
*1987 – Whitney Houston became the first women in US history to enter the album chart at No.1 with ‘Whitney’ she also became the first woman to top the singles chart with four consecutive releases when ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ hit No.1.
June 23, 2009 – Chris Brown pleaded guilty to one count of assault on his former girlfriend, Rihanna. The 19 year-old R&B singer was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to do six months community service.
The Rolling Stones scored their seventh UK No.1 single when ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ hit the top of the charts. Keith Richards has stated that he and Jagger wrote the lyrics while staying at Richards’ country house, where they were awoken one morning by the sound of gardener Jack Dyer walking past the window. When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded: “Oh, that’s Jack – that’s jumpin’ Jack.”
In honor of this, here is a picture of The Rolling Stones from 1968
Drummer Tommy Moore made the fateful decision to quit The Beatles and return to his job of driving a forklift at a bottle works company. He was briefly replaced by Norman Chapman, who was called into National Service after just three gigs. After going drummer-less and mostly jobless for a few weeks, the band hired Pete Best on August 12th, only one day before they were to go to Hamburg to play a string of club dates. Pete Best was fired August 16, 1962 and replaced by Ringo Starr.
Glenn Wallichs launched Capitol Records in the US. The label became home to such artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, Glen Campbell, Steve Miller, Dr. Hook, Bob Seger, Tina Turner, Heart and countless others. He also is the person who invented sending copies of new releases to disc jockeys!
June 4, 1984
Bruce Springsteen released the album, ‘Born In The USA’, which became the best-selling album of 1985 in the United States. The album produced a record-tying string of seven Top 10 singles (tied with Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814).
I was searching around to see what musicians had my same birthday and found a bunch of sites that lists music related situations by day. So I’m starting a new series ‘MNTN – Today in Music.
Here’s the first one:
May 27, 1983: The Smiths were at No.1 on the UK independent chart with their debut single ‘Hand In Glove.’
May 27, 1977: The Sex Pistols single ‘God Save The Queen’ was released in the UK. Banned by TV and radio, high street shops and pressing plant workers refused to handle the record. It sold 200,000 copies in one week and peaked at No.2 on the UK charts
